Name: Fish Pie
Ingredients: 1 smoked haddock; 4 hard-boiled eggs; 1 onion, sliced; 1 tomato, sliced; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 2-3 green chillies, sliced; 1 teacup fish boiling liquid; butter, for dabbing; short crust pastry

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the smoked haddock for a few minutes, then skin and bone it.
Hard boil the eggs, then shell and slice them.

Assemble and bake

In a pie dish, layer the fish, sliced eggs, onion, tomato, pepper, and green chillies until full.
Pour the fish boiling liquid over the layers and dab with butter.
Cover with short crust pastry and bake until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Smoked haddock: Provides the main body of the pie, with flaky fish that holds its shape when cooked.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a firm, sliceable texture between the layers of fish.
Fish boiling liquid: Adds moisture and flavour, helping the layers stay juicy as the pie bakes.
Short crust pastry: Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a golden crust.
Tomato: Adds moisture and a mild acidity that brightens the filling.
Onion: Contributes aroma and a mild sweetness as it cooks in the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, egg, tomato, pepper, fish, butter):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, egg, tomato, pepper, fish, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.